Food trip

Got to try three new restaurants over the last four days. Stuffed myself while I was at it. :)

*****

On Thursday night, I had dinner with my friends Walter and Tim in Charlie's Grind and Grill. The original restaurant is located in Kapitolyo but they opened a new branch along Ortigas avenue (Greenhills side) and that's where we went for our meal. I've read good reviews about the food here but I have to say I was a bit disappointed since the food didn't live up to expectations. The buffalo wings were so-so, the fish in the fish and chips didn't seem very fresh, and the meatballs in the meatballs marinara on pasta was a bit too soft and mushy. The chili fries was the best thing we ordered that night.

Of course, Charlie's Grind and Grill is supposed to be known for its burgers and we didn't have one so I will make sure to try one of their burgers (like the Black Angus burger or the Shroom burger which I really want to try) or their cheese steaks in my next trip.

*****

I met up with my friends Joh, Raffa, and Me-ann on Saturday night. We hadn't seen each other for a while - probably since Lexi's baptism! - and since Joh just celebrated her birthday recently, it was a good time for us to meet up. I've been meaning to try Mr. Jones in Greenbelt 5 and when Joh told me it had also been in their to-try list for a while, our venue was very quickly set.

It was a very good choice too! All four of us enjoyed the dishes we ordered. I had the Big Mama's Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, Me-ann ordered the Wicked Truffled Mac 'n' Cheese, Joh had the 1/2" Thick Double-Smoked Bacon and Eggs, and Raffa ordered the US Beef Ribcap Tapa and Garlic Overload. And the serving sizes are pretty big! We all wanted to have dessert after our meal but there just wasn't any room left after. Even hours later when I was in Reserve having drinks with other friends I still couldn't eat anything.

*****

We celebrated my nephew Ciera's birthday on Sunday. The initial plan was for us to have dinner in La Maison Café in Greenbelt 5 but there was some kind of function there when we arrived so we had to switch restos. So we went down one floor and had a celebration meal in Restaurante Pia Y Damaso. The cuisine is mainly Filipino (or Colonial Filipino as I've read) and we ordered a lot of it: Beef Shortribs Rioja, Chicken Pastel, Tapang Usa, Pork Belly with Chorizo and Chickpeas, and Lengua Sevillana. We also ordered paella, catfish adobo, and snails (i checked the online menus and couldn't find the "official" names of these last three dishes). It was my other nephew CJ who actually ordered the snails which definitely proves that my nephews don't have the same food preferences as most other kids their age (or even most other adults for that matter!)

The desserts were also quite exceptional. Ciera ordered the ube macapuno cake, my grandfather ordered Pepay the Dancer's halo-halo and shared it with my brother, CJ tried some kind of leche flan-type dessert (can't remember what it was called), and I ordered both Sisa's Dementia and Ibarra's Kiss for everyone else to share. I absolutely loved the last two chocolate-based desserts and it went perfectly with the really good coffee they had there.

*****

The only downside to this food trip is that I tried three new restos but took no photos hehe. Maybe next time I have a camera with me the next time I get to visit these places.